7 Ways to Save on a Trip to New York
Going on a trip can be a little tricky when you’re on a tight budget. However, even if you’re not on a tight budget, saving a little green here and there never hurt anyone. On our trip to Niagra and NYC, we found 7 ways to save on a trip to New York.
Book Hotels Early: We booked our hotels early and found the best deals in the area and save on a trip to New York. You can use sites like booking buddy, Travelocity, and Hotwire to find and book inexpensive hotel rooms for half the cost. We were able to book a hotel in Niagara Falls for $79 a night as opposed to booking directly through the hotel at $100-300 a night. Booking early, also, offers you more options. If you book when you get there, you may not have an option and have to settle for the highest hotel room in town.
Calculate Gas Prices: Instead of going by the seat of our pants, we looked used an online site to calculate our gas cost. By putting in your starting point, your ending point, make, and model of your vehicle, you can determine an approximate total cost of gas for your trip. Try out different routes to see which route offers you a bigger discount on your gas costs.
Avoid Tolls: Tolls may be less expensive to travel on your gas bill, but you can get some pretty hefty fines on the toll road. If you need to take the toll over a bridge or through numerous cities, you may want to think twice about taking the toll road. Some of our tolls were $20 to go over one bridge in the city. That means you pay $20 to get into the city and $20 to get out of the city. Keep in mind, too, that there are bridges to get to other parts of the city (Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens).
Use Discount Sites: We used discount sites such as Groupon and Super Saving Social to score some great deals on restaurants. We were able to get a $40 voucher for $20 on Groupon. We, also, used these sites to get a discounted Niagara Falls USA Discovery Pass which included:
- Niagara Adventure Theater
- Aquarium of Niagara
- Cave of the Winds Trip
- Niagara Gorge Discovery Center
- Maid of the Mist
Pretend to be a New Yorker: When you go to all the touristy locations, prices are going to be higher than what a typical New Yorker pays. Instead of spending money for things you can do for free, do your research before you go. Did you know the Staten Island Ferry takes you right past the Statue of Liberty for free? You could pay $18 a person for the same view. However, if you are looking to step onto Ellis Island, the Staten Island Ferry doesn’t make a pit stop there.
Pack Breakfast and Lunch: A great way to save on a trip is to pack breakfast and lunch for each day you will be gone. You can get ice when you go, but ice is free in most hotels, so you won’t have to buy ice for your cooler again. Things like PB&J, Lunchables, granola bars, pop tarts, cheese sticks, carrots, and pretzels are some of the items we found were easy to store. We, also, brought a case of water and a case of pop. Bringing extra drinks that you can easily store in your purse or stroller can save $100s on buying drinks throughout the day.
Do Your Research: There’s always ways to save on a trip, and as long as we have the internet, you can continue to do research. Make sure you look up free stuff to do in NYC and Niagara Falls for an economically friendly and exhilarating experience.
IF you are a local, or traveling to Long Island, NY; check out our post of
Free or low cost things to do on Long Island, NY
What other ways have you found to save on your trips? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below!
These are great tips! Especially, avoiding tolls! Tolls are the absolute worst at burning a hole in your pocket?
I always forget about the toll roads because we don’t have them on this side of the USA. That is a defiantly consideration to think about. Gas is almost always the first thing I try to figure out before a trip.
Thanks for sharing these tips. I’ve been to New York a couple of times, and it can be expensive.
Wow! Those tolls are crazy. I would’ve never thought they would be anything like that. I can take the bridge from
MI to Canada for $5. $20
One way is crazy!
Oh this is great! I so bookmarked this page to come back too because I love NY so much and I want to plan a week long trip out there soon so this helps so much! Thanks!!!
Great post! Sadly, I’m a last minute planner! Finding deals ahead of time are something I don’t have time to plan! These are great tips and it is great to know you could save more money by doing so!
These are excellent tips! Sometimes as tourists you get sucked in to to paying for services and tickets, when there are better options!
These are great ways to help you save money. I didn’t know that you can calculate your gas. I need to check that website.
Thank you for these tips. New York is one of my favorite cities to visits. I’ll bookmark this for later use. 🙂
Awesome! Thanks
Check it out: https://www.fueleconomy.gov/trip/#? It is pretty accurate!
We usually book hotels early when we travel. Thanks for the other tips. I hope we get to visit New York this year. 🙂
These are great tips! Sometimes you get sucked in to to paying for services and tickets, when you don’t really need it! Thank you for sharing them!
Love these tips!! I love being from New York there is so much to see and do here.
These are some great tips. I’ve never been to New York before, but it’s on my list of places to go. I think it would be a lot of fun to be able to visit sometime.
I have been wanting to go back to NY since i was there last year. I would love to live there someday. These are great tips for saving on a trip.
I’ve always wanted to visit NYC! Love these tips and I will bookmark this page
These are wonderful tips on traveling. Those toll rolls get me all the time here in Florida. Heck, if it saves time I don’t mind it.
These are great tips! I want to take my husband to NYC for his birthday. 🙂
It’s been so long since I’ve been to New York. Now that I have two kids I find it even harder to travel but it’s good to know there are ways to save. I would love to take them to see the Niagara Falls!
Traveling to New York doesn’t have to be a crazy expensive adventure. Planning ahead helps so much though! It is such a beautiful state.